Interview with Philippe Papillon from INES, made during ESTEC 2011 conference in Marseille. Philippe speaks of his organisation's work on solar thermal energy. 30% of the 15-strong team's time is spent on system design and testing, with a main focus on auxiliary consumption and the reduction of cost of solar energy. They also work on component design, specifically targetting preliminary components as an effective way to reduce costs.

This is an interview with Paolo Frankl from IEA made during the ESTEC 2011 conference in Marseille. Paolo explains that IEA is paying more attention to heating and its contribution to consumption. The IEA will release by spring 2012 a solar heating and cooling roadmap. Solar energy in the heating sector is expected to increase significantly. The main drivers to this increase are the environmental concerns (CO2 reductions), but also energy security.

This is an interview with Matthew Carlson, CEO of the US company Sunnvations, made during ESTEC 2011, in Marseille. Matthew Carlson speaks about the innovative products of its company. He also explains the objectives of the US initiative 'Solar Thermal Advantage'.

This is an interview with Jose Antonio Perez, from BDR Thermea Group BV, the third largest heating company in Europe. Mr Perez is a Board Member of ESTIF. In this interview he speaks about the importance of solar for his company and gives his opinion on how solar thermal could become more competitive on the long run.

The change at the helm of government in Italy has already had some positive effects on the solar thermal sector. The tax credit extensions were confirmed earlier than in the years before. At the beginning of December, the government approved the extension until 31 December 2012 under the current conditions. If they had not done so, the tax reduction would have expired at the end of 2011. According to the current regulations – in place since January 2011 – residential customers can deduct 55 % of the investment costs from their income tax during a period of 10 years.

The French utility GDF Suez was the main sponsor of Estec 2011 in Marseille. Its subsidiary Banque Solfea is specialized on loans concerning renewable energies. CEO Dominique-Geneviève Rougier introduced the industrial bank within a presentation, and explained services and portfolio in the course of an interview with solarthermalwolrd.org. In three years Banque Soltea intends to reach an outstanding discounted bills of EUR 1 billion in the field of efficiency measures and renewable energies. Photo: Banque Solfea

Whereas the global market for chillers with small cooling capacities has a volume of around 70 million units annually, the European industry of small-capacity sorption cooling is still in its infancy and is facing many challenges. A newly published study, “Scenario Planning for the European Small Capacity Sorption Cooling Industry”, has identified four different ways the industry could take in a sector whose future development is still hard to predict and depends on several unknowns. The study also helps with strategic recommendations on how the European industry can prepare itself for the possible future in each of these scenarios. The photo shows a selection of small-capacity solar chillers. Source: Presentation Green Chiller at ESTEC 2011

By 15 October 2011, a total of 11,386 applications have been submitted by banks within the residential subsidy programme of the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW). The monthly application rate has increased tremendously - from 15 applications in the starting month September 2010 to 1,658 in September 2011 almost one year later. The figure from October 2011 in the chart above represents only half the month, which means this year’s total collector area can be expected to climb even steeper.
Source: NFOŚiGW

The crisis in the European key countries was present during the entire 5th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (ESTEC) in Marseilles on 20 and 21 October 2011. Around 300 speakers and participants tried to deliver new ideas and concepts to get the industry back on track. At the second conference day, "plug and flow", "solar active houses", "fixed prices for end consumers" and "solar incentive tariffs" were among the key issues of a round-table discussion, which was moderated by Uwe Trenkner, a consultant based in Brussels (third from left). Photo: ESTIF/ Joël Assuied